This invention relates to data processing systems.
It is well known to organise the data in the memory of a data processing system as a sequence of records, separated by end-of-record markers. For example, in a stock control system, each record may relate to a particular part, and may contain details such as the part number, the name of the supplier of that part, the number of parts in stock, and so on. Usually, such a file is processed on a record-by-record basis. For example, the processing may involve examining each record in turn to ascertain whether further supplies of that part have to be ordered.
It has been realised by the inventor that greater flexibility could be obtained in such a system if the boundaries of the records were not absolutely rigid, but could be varied to suit requirements. For instance, in the above example, it might sometimes be useful if a group of records relating to a particular supplier could be regarded as a single extended record and processed as such.